Trouble recording records

When recording from a phonograph, I use the following items.

Depending on the phonograph whether or not it's MC or MM makes a difference in sound although most can't tell the difference. Also, you need to know if your phonograph requires a pre-pre amp or if that pre-pre amp is built in and the line coming out is at line level. The Rolls item is a pre-pre amp unit which takes to older phonographs signal level to that of input levels which allow the phonograph to be connected to any aux line in.

On the back of the computer, you can plug the RCA jacks from the phonograph into the adapter and directly into your computer via the MIC (usually pink) input. Most of the time this is sufficient. If the volume is too loud, or sounds horrible, chances are you have a pre-pre amp and you then plug it into the line in (usually blue)

First I would connect the RCA's from the phonograph to the adapter and plug it into the mic and see how the sound is.

Keep in mind that you do not use the ROLLs unit when connecting this way. If it's too loud or distorted, plug it into the line in.

For recording, you can download Audacity which is free and a wonderful editing program.

Hello don, what it seems like to me is that when you hear the external speakers shut off what is most likely happening is that the computer is actually switching the sound device, and since there is no input, you hear nothing. (I must assume that you are using windows XP, in Vista the steps may be slightly different.) first things first, connect your usb audio device and wait for the tell tale sound. next go into your control panel (start button>control panel) look for the 'sounds and audio devices' icon an double click on it. a window should open up that displays 5 tabs or so. one of thoses tabs is labled 'audio'. click on that and check to see that your default sound playback device is listed as your usb drive or your normal sound card(it should be your normal sound card). next, while in the same window check you sound recording device. that should be your usb device. if you don't see it there, then you will have to install the drivers for the device. if you do see it there, then make sure you are playing a record and that all cables are connected properly, and that the volume is turned up at least halfway one everything. yes, pc and analog devices. What is happening here is that the device is a microphone, and it is supposed to turn your usb port into a recording device. it needs sounds input so that it can convert them to a digital signal, and the drivers to let the pc know that's what all of those signals are coming in. we can tackle the mp3 conversion after you've sorted this out, but i would suggest looking into a format called '.FLAC'. it is a lossless compression scheme, and if you're taking the time to do all of this you probably want the best product possible for archiving.